One Pan, 30 Minutes and a Superior Spring Salmon

Of all the ways to cook a sugar snap pea, roasting at high heat was never at the top of my list.

To me, the joy of a sugar snap was always in its crunch — that juicy pop when you bit one in half. And that is exactly what a stint in a hot oven would obliterate.

Besides, with their season being so frustratingly short in the Northeast, I hardly had enough time to eat my fill of them raw or quickly blanched before they disappeared. Roasting was just not a priority.

Eventually, though, I had to try it. After all, I’ve enjoyed roasting pretty much every other vegetable out there. (Even the less obviously roast-able ones, like radishes and lettuces, have their charms.) So I threw a pan of peas into the oven to see what would happen.

Visually, the result was not encouraging. The peas wilted, shriveled and dimmed, their bright green fading into a muddy khaki.

But the flavor was divine: a rich, concentrated essence of sweet peas layered with savory caramelized notes. Roasting may quiet the peas’ crunch, but it amplifies their sweetness — and they have sweetness in spades.